1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to software application development and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for development of applications using disparate development platforms.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern software development is performed using many software developers working on various hardware/software platforms to develop a software application. Each platform has dedicated Software Development Kit (SDK) to facilitate development of executable code (also referred to herein as software application or software application upon a particular platform. For example, an application for iOS may be initially developed using an Apple computer, Mac OS, and an Apple-based SDK. The application may be subsequently transferred to another developer for inclusion as a plug-in or extension of a larger application, testing and the like. The second developer may work on, for example, a WINDOWS platform using a WINDOWS-based SDK to package the extension with the larger application. As a result, for example, an extension developed on an APPLE computer may ultimately be included in a larger application being developed on a WINDOWS platform and ultimately executed on a third computer, e.g., APPLE computer.
To facilitate functionality across the various platforms, the initial (first) developer may create multiple versions of the software where each version functions on a different platform. Another alternative is to create one software application and design the ability to link to a different library associated with each platform. As such, the application would be packaged with a plurality of libraries (at least one library for each supported platform).
Therefore, there is a need in the art for improved method and apparatus for development of applications capable of operating across different platforms.